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LadySharkey1 rocks my world by being the most amazing, kick-ass beta I could ever imagine.

Epilogue

Happily ever after?

If I would have said that everything between us was perfect, I would have been a liar. Sure, we had more ups than downs—and that was what kept us together—but between our busy jobs and our shared tendency to keep quiet when something was bugging us, it was a long and winding road.

I would say that we were perfect, in our own, very flawed way.

After our weekend of bliss, it was incredibly hard to go back to living apart again but we both knew that, if we wanted to make things work between us in the long run, we had to ease our way back into each other's lives. Over time, Charlie got more and more used to having her dad stay over at night. And we learned to keep our lovemaking as quiet as possible as to not clue our growing daughter into what we were doing when we thought she was asleep.

The funny thing was, though, that having him over at my place was so natural that it almost felt like he'd been doing it for the past ten years.

Having to share an already pretty cramped space, however, wasn't.

I wasn't sure who came up with the idea in the first place but in the end, the idea of expanding my business upwards into the apartment, opening up a huge space downstairs to expand the cafe, was such a good plan that I could smack myself for not having thought of it before.

Edward and I bought a house on the outskirts of town, with a huge backyard for Charlie to run amuck in and enough bedrooms upstairs to make us think about filling them. All we had to do was bridge the enormous amount of time where our whole loves seemed to be made up of building renovations until we could move into a life more suited to our changed needs and desires.

It was a test, though.

As always with those kinds of things, work was severely delayed on our house; forcing Charlie and me to move into Edward's small apartment for the time being as another work crew started transforming my old apartment into my new workspace.

But it was worth it.

I smiled contentedly, looking at the front façade of our newly remodeled home. Sure, the yard still needed a hell of a lot of work but the house itself was perfect. "It's finally ready," I muttered, my arms trembling with the weight of the box I was carrying.

"Huh?" I heard Edward's voice behind me as Charlie's laughter rung out from inside. It was the day we were finally moving in.

It was the day we would finally become a real, functional family.

Well, officially.

"I can't believe we're finally moving in," I explained, dragging the box upstairs and into the living room even though it was labeled 'bedroom'. I'd leave it to one of the guys to complete its journey.

"And not a second too soon," Edward grinned, his skin damp with sweat as he descended the stairs. "No more falling over boxes of cookbooks in the middle of the night."

"And no more having to move stacks of medical journals whenever I want to eat!" I countered, grinning widely as I surveyed the huge living space the new home offered us; a big kitchen stuffed with all the newest gadgets that I could play around in, and a huge study for Edward. Even Charlie had her own play area, though with our yard fading into the forest, I knew I'd have a hard time actually keeping her indoors.

Or bringing the outdoors in with her when she did finally come inside.

"Not having Charlie sleep right next to our bedroom will be great, too," Edward whispered huskily in my ear, making me shiver with anticipation. My whimper made him chuckle; the deep rumble of laughter vibrating through my skin, made me feel decidedly lightheaded. "Don't forget to breath."

I growled, my heart thumping in my chest as I watched him walk away, shaking with laughter. Smug jackass!

"Bella? I need some help in the kitchen, please?" Rose's voice rung out from where she and my mom had been hard at work, filling the cabinets with all the stuff we'd merged together from our two houses.

Charlie, meanwhile, was making her own contribution by keeping little Hunter McCarty entertained at the kitchen table while his mom was otherwise occupied. In the distance, I could just hear Esme's voice, directing traffic upstairs where she and Alice had set up shop, while Alice's new boyfriend, Jasper, was scoring major brownie points with Edward as he helped them get the heavier pieces of furniture upstairs.

The whole family—our family—was pulling together to make this move happen.

The only two people missing were my dad and Carlisle. Both of them had to work, though where I knew my dad had unsuccessfully tried to move heaven and earth to change his shift, I suspected Carlisle had been more than happy to hold down the fort over at Forks General while his son got the day off to move into his new home. He'd be there later on, though, when we'd all get together for a barbecue on our back deck.

Over the past months, things had slowly gotten a bit better between Carlisle and me. Where Edward was having much more success in getting back into my dad's good graces, there was simply too much history between me and Edward's dad to just brush it to the side.

In the months after my first conversation with Carlisle, many more had followed. And not just between him and me. Like Edward and I, he too had discovered that opening up about your problems is much more constructive than letting them all bottle up. In talking with his wife and kids, he was slowly starting to learn how to let go of the disappointment he left over his career and the road his life had taken. He still had a long road to travel but already we could see that he was more at peace.

And he had completely accepted my place in Edward's life, which was a big step towards redemption.

All in all, our lives had shifted into calmer waters and with our move, I hoped we would finally have that peace and stability we had both been craving for God only knew how long.

Though, things were as hectic as always as a house filled with people scarcely allowed me to breath or think as I tried to bring order into the chaos. It wasn't until it was dark and quiet; the last of our guests having left an hour ago and Charlie upstairs, sleeping for the first time in her new bedroom, that I stopped to smell the roses. Or in this case; that very distinct scent of home mixed in with the earthy smell of the woods coming from the open French doors.

Home.

I'd finally made it home.

Walking through the doors back onto the deck, though, my quieting heart started racing again as I spotted the differences to how it had looked before I'd put Charlie to bed; lights turned down, candles everywhere…Edward, on one knee in between the unpacked boxes and dirty dishes still littering the ground.

"Edward?" I whispered, already feeling the pricking of tears in the corners of my eyes.

"I've loved you as long as I've known you," he spoke, his voice thick with emotions as his eyes found mine. "I never stopped…not even when I thought I'd lost you forever. Now that I can hold you in my arms again, I can't imagine spending another day apart." He swallowed nervously, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat. "Bella, my love, will you marry me?"

I didn't have to think about my answer, my knees hitting the floor with a loud thud as I all but threw myself at him in a haze of tears, kisses, and most of all, my love. And in the stillness of the night around us, I whispered my reply into his ear.

"Yes."

And that's it for these two (three?). I hope you liked the ending. Next week, Breakfast in the Dunes, my new story, will go up. I hope you'll join me for that one as well.

Thoughts?